Earth Care, People Care, Future Care

Tag Archives: pigs

“Our current industrial method of food production is increasingly viewed as an unsustainable system, destructive to the environment and public health. But what is the alternative?

Fresh profiles the farmers, thinkers, and business people across the nation who are at the forefront of re-inventing food production in America. With a strong commitment to sustainability, they are changing how farms are run, how the land is cared for, and how food is distributed. Their success demonstrates that a new paradigm based on sustainable practices can be profitable and a model for our food system, if people choose to support it.

Fresh opens with a short summary of the problems and consequences of industrialized food production, then focuses primarily on the individuals who are creating new approaches to address environmental, health, and economic challenges throughout the food chain.

Joel Salatin is a world-famous sustainable farmer and entrepreneur who, by observing nature, devised a rotational grazing system for his animals that heals the land while making his operations many times more profitable than his conventional farming neighbors.

Will Allen, a former pro basketball player and recipient of a Macarthur “Genius Award”, is now one of the most influential leaders of the urban farming movement. He teaches people in the inner city the value of healthy food and how to grow their own.

David Ball saw his family-run supermarket and a once-thriving local farming community dying with the rise of Walmart and other big chains. So he reinvented his business, partnering with area farmers to sell locally-grown food at an affordable price. His plan has brought the local economy back to life.

Fresh also features a farmer in Iowa who illustrates the struggles family farmers face, a hog farmer in Missouri who stopped using antibiotics on his pigs, and commentary by noted food expert and author Michael Pollan.” Film 70 mins.

Interested in restoration agriculture, sustainable gardening, and local solutions? Come join our latest free film to meet other like minded folk and learn more.

NW Permaculture Institute Free Film and Lecture Series
Held in Salem every 2nd Wednesday @ 6:30 pm
At Salem Friend’s Meeting House, 490 19th Street NE (19th at Breyman)
For more information: 971-218-4772, or dianedalychavez@gmail.com.

12 classes – $15 each (If all classes are paid in advance, course discounted to $160)

Permaculture is “Earth Care, People Care, and Return of Surplus,” combining traditional and innovative methods that are sustainable and energy saving, enriching to the soil and all life. Design a system to feed your family, or complete additional short classes to earn your certificate and work as a consultant.

Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW covers permaculture history and ethics and goes into depth on the core concepts for creating sustainable systems by observing connections and capturing energy. Explore the energy transactions of trees, the roles of fungi, and the many functions of living soil. Learn pH, mineral availability, and enriching your soil with worm beds, weeds as repair tools, and compost fixing strategies. Study landscape effects on climate and temperate climate design for your home and landscape from kitchen gardens to main crops and food forests. This course prepares you to design a sustainable system for your yard or small farm in the Pacific NW.

“Our current industrial method of food production is increasingly viewed as an unsustainable system, destructive to the environment and public health. But what is the alternative?

Fresh profiles the farmers, thinkers, and business people across the nation who are at the forefront of re-inventing food production in America. With a strong commitment to sustainability, they are changing how farms are run, how the land is cared for, and how food is distributed. Their success demonstrates that a new paradigm based on sustainable practices can be profitable and a model for our food system, if people choose to support it.

Fresh opens with a short summary of the problems and consequences of industrialized food production, then focuses primarily on the individuals who are creating new approaches to address environmental, health, and economic challenges throughout the food chain.

Joel Salatin is a world-famous sustainable farmer and entrepreneur who, by observing nature, devised a rotational grazing system for his animals that heals the land while making his operations many times more profitable than his conventional farming neighbors.

Will Allen, a former pro basketball player and recipient of a Macarthur “Genius Award”, is now one of the most influential leaders of the urban farming movement. He teaches people in the inner city the value of healthy food and how to grow their own.

David Ball saw his family-run supermarket and a once-thriving local farming community dying with the rise of Walmart and other big chains. So he reinvented his business, partnering with area farmers to sell locally-grown food at an affordable price. His plan has brought the local economy back to life.

Fresh also features a farmer in Iowa who illustrates the struggles family farmers face, a hog farmer in Missouri who stopped using antibiotics on his pigs, and commentary by noted food expert and author Michael Pollan.”

Film includes potluck and discussion at 5090 Center Street NE, Salem, Oregon 97317. For more information: 503-449-8077.

This event is made possible by support from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, Life Source Natural Foods, and private donations from people in our community. Thank you for your support!

Here at the NW Permaculture Institute we are wishing you an abundant 2015 in education, fertile soil, and healthy home grown foods.

Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share: Free Film and Lecture Series presents our first films of 2015

January 20th @ 6:30pm – The Agro Rebel: Permaculture in the Salzburg Alps, 45 mins. How can Sepp Holzer farm fish, livestock, vegetables and herbs, a wide variety of fruits including lemons high in the Alps? No weeding, no watering, no annual plowing. The Agro Rebel explores the unusual, sustainable, energy and time saving, farming methods developed by Austrian farmer, Sepp Holzer. Film showing at Pringle Creek Community, 3911Village Center Drive SE, Salem. For more info call Diana Cason, 941-735-0452. Presented by NWPI with help from Pringle Creek Community.

January 22nd @ 6:30pm – The Greenhorns, 50 minutes. “Monoculture, monopoly, cheap food and poor diets – these are the consequences of an agricultural system gone awry, driven by policy and corporate control. Here we are, unhealthy. Re-orienting our food system is a project worth tackling, and these young farmers have chosen to become part of the solution, addressing the crisis they see by learning the skills needed, and starting the kinds of businesses that, one by one, can replace complicated, entrenched systems. Today’s young farmers are dynamic entrepreneurs, stewards of place. They are involved in local politics, partnering with others, inventing new social institutions, working with mentors, starting their careers as apprentices, borrowing money from the bank, putting in long hours, taking risks, innovating, experimenting. Farming with horses, with hacked tractors, with forgotten urban lots and Appalachian coal country. These young farmers have vision: a prosperous, satisfying, sustainable food system. It is ambitious, it will take work, but it wont be boring.”

Event includes finger food potluck and discussion, @ 6:30 pm, Thursday January 22nd at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem, 5090 Center Street NE, Salem. For more info call 503-449-8077. Presented by NWPI, with support from UUCS and Life Source Natural Foods.

In January we are starting a new section of our 36 hour class:

Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW

Permaculture is “Earth Care, People Care, and Return of Surplus,” combining traditional and innovative methods that are sustainable and energy saving, enriching to the soil and all life. Design a system to feed your family, or complete additional short classes to earn your certificate and work as a consultant.

Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW covers permaculture history and ethics and goes into depth on the core concepts for creating sustainable systems by observing connections and capturing energy. Explore the energy transactions of trees, the roles of fungi, and the many functions of living soil. Learn pH, mineral availability, and enriching your soil with worm beds, weeds as repair tools, and compost fixing strategies. Study landscape effects on climate and temperate climate design for your home and landscape from balcony or kitchen gardens to main crops and food forests. This course prepares you to design a sustainable system for your yard or small farm in the Pacific NW.

Classes will be three hours, 6:30-9:30 each Wednesday evening, held in Salem starting on January 28th. $15 per class. Space is limited, contact instructor, Diana Cason at 941-735-0452, to reserve your seat, or to ask for more information and location.

2015 – International Year of the Soils

There is little as important as the health and preservation of living soils. To learn more about the importance of soil and the relationship between soil and carbon, we recommend the following books:

Rising fuel prices are a wake up call for filmmaker, Rebecca Hosking, as she investigates how to turn her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future. Going beyond mere alarm raising to present practical, ingenious solutions from pioneering farmers and gardeners, Rebecca shows that nature holds some surprising keys to abundance.

As American food nears a state of crisis, INGREDIENTS explores a thriving local food movement where community, food-safety, and flavor are commonplace. Traveling across the United States, from the urban food deserts of Harlem to the abundant Willamette Valley, INGREDIENTS, is a journey that reveals the people who are bringing good food back to the table, and the myriad ways we all can eat better. It empowers and sparks the joy of discovery in creating a healthier, more sustainable model for living and eating well in a world in need of balance.

Welcome to all of our new and returning students! We are glad to be sharing and supporting your learning journey. Everyone currently registered gets a hard copy of the 36 hour, 12 class breakdown from their instructor, however, we post here too for those of you who need to make up a class, or who just want to repeat a class and deepen your understanding of the core concepts. New students, if you have missed Class One, or any class session, call Instructor Diana Cason at 941-735-0452 to get details on how to attend a make up session. (Note: the Saturday classes have been changed to independent study schedules to meet the needs of our out of town students and are no longer meeting on Saturdays in NE Salem. We will be starting a new section of Permaculture Essentials for the Pacific NW in NE Salem in Early 2015.)